The contribution of the subsoil in a reinforced piled embankment

The effect of the subsoil is generally ignored, as this support may be unreliable in the long-term as consolidation proceeds. In this paper, the idealised long-term behaviour of the subsoil was investigated, in conjunction with the reinforcement. The numerical analyses showed that the subsoil could make a major contribution to overall vertical equilibrium. Moreover, the reinforcement can make obvious contribution at relatively large settlement. The subsoil response was found to be somewhat underestimated by the consideration of one-dimensional stiffness. The contribution of the subsoil to the vertical equilibrium is generally more significant than that of the reinforcement. Finally, a simple equation was achieved to predict the maximum settlement at the surface of the subsoil.